Letter from Terry Ford to his sister
Title
Letter from Terry Ford to his sister
Description
Terry Ford writes to Yvonne about having finished the course and in now waiting for the next course. He describes Manitoba and compares it to Severn Beach in size. He talks about the weather conditions in Manitoba and also asks what the weather is like at home.
Creator
Date
1942-12-17
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Three handwritten sheets
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
EFordTAFordY421217-0001,
EFordTAFordY421217-0002,
EFordTAFordY421217-0003
EFordTAFordY421217-0002,
EFordTAFordY421217-0003
Transcription
1585520 LAC Ford. T.A.
A2 Flight 67 Course,
35 EFTS,
Neepawa Man.
17–12–42.
Dear Yvonne,
Thank you very much for your Christmas card & letter, it was very nice to hear from you. As you can see by the date, I am 20 to–day.
I have now finished the course here & I’m glad to say, I’ve passed O.K. & we are now hoping to get a couple of weeks Christmas leave before going onto the next course I’m hoping to go on single–engine planes, but I don’t know yet.
You ask what sort of a place we are in. Well Manitoba is several times larger than England but it is very sparsely populated. Neepawa, which is the 4th largest town in Manitoba & is marked as a large town on the map, is about the size of Severn Beach. This is Prairie country but t is different to what I thought. It is just hundreds of miles of flat wheat fields with woods, hills & lakes every so often Unfortunately all the wheat had been gathered before we arrived.
I wish we had been here in summer, as there are buffalo moose [deleted] deer [/deleted] elk
[page break]
deer, skunk & all sorts of animals in a mountain range near here, but the weather is too cold to go there on leave.
The temperature at the moment is about 15o below zero & we are told that winter hasn’t started yet!
Twenty–five of our flight went to a Turkey dinner in Neepawa last night The old Mayor, who is 82 is very proud of his town & in his speech he gave a list of places in the town 4 grocers, 2 drug stores 5 barbers 2 Hotels & salt plant etc. He said they were also proud to have their own water supply & sewers.
Still these people are plenty tough, the white people only came out here about 80 years ago & they had to spend the first winter in tents & I can tell that’s some show!
I like your request for me to send you stuff. Where do you think the money is coming from? It goes very quickly & I’m sure to be broke after Christmas. Still I’ll see what I can do.
We didn’t see much of the States but we did see the sky scrapers in Boston.
There are some very attractive girls here, but I’ve been too tired after flying so much to do much, but Christmas is coming. I suppose you’re going out with a Young Farmer
[page break]
Why didn’t you sing in the competition glamour girl. I know you’ve got a voice like an old goat but you think it’s good. I wish the old woman has made you sing for revenge & that would really have made everyone cry
Have we had any snow yet! Last night we had a blizzard & in about 8 hours there were drifts several feet thick everywhere And, girlie does the wind howl. When we get a really hard blizzard people have been known to go out of the house to cross over to a neighbour, & they’ve never been seen again.
I’ve got some very interesting photographs which I shall bring home with me. I managed to get a small camera for $1–50 (about 7/–) & it takes quite good little photographs.
I’ve also bought a watch, a fountain pen & a pair of skates.
The skates are pretty good & only cost a dollar. We have a rink on the camp, & I’m getting quite good.
Well I think that’s all the news for now Yvonne, so Cheerioh
[drawing of a fish] [underlined] FISH FARM [/underlined]
[underlined] Love [/underlined]
Terry
P.S. If there is any news in here Mum hasn’t heard would you show it to her sometime
[page break]
A2 Flight 67 Course,
35 EFTS,
Neepawa Man.
17–12–42.
Dear Yvonne,
Thank you very much for your Christmas card & letter, it was very nice to hear from you. As you can see by the date, I am 20 to–day.
I have now finished the course here & I’m glad to say, I’ve passed O.K. & we are now hoping to get a couple of weeks Christmas leave before going onto the next course I’m hoping to go on single–engine planes, but I don’t know yet.
You ask what sort of a place we are in. Well Manitoba is several times larger than England but it is very sparsely populated. Neepawa, which is the 4th largest town in Manitoba & is marked as a large town on the map, is about the size of Severn Beach. This is Prairie country but t is different to what I thought. It is just hundreds of miles of flat wheat fields with woods, hills & lakes every so often Unfortunately all the wheat had been gathered before we arrived.
I wish we had been here in summer, as there are buffalo moose [deleted] deer [/deleted] elk
[page break]
deer, skunk & all sorts of animals in a mountain range near here, but the weather is too cold to go there on leave.
The temperature at the moment is about 15o below zero & we are told that winter hasn’t started yet!
Twenty–five of our flight went to a Turkey dinner in Neepawa last night The old Mayor, who is 82 is very proud of his town & in his speech he gave a list of places in the town 4 grocers, 2 drug stores 5 barbers 2 Hotels & salt plant etc. He said they were also proud to have their own water supply & sewers.
Still these people are plenty tough, the white people only came out here about 80 years ago & they had to spend the first winter in tents & I can tell that’s some show!
I like your request for me to send you stuff. Where do you think the money is coming from? It goes very quickly & I’m sure to be broke after Christmas. Still I’ll see what I can do.
We didn’t see much of the States but we did see the sky scrapers in Boston.
There are some very attractive girls here, but I’ve been too tired after flying so much to do much, but Christmas is coming. I suppose you’re going out with a Young Farmer
[page break]
Why didn’t you sing in the competition glamour girl. I know you’ve got a voice like an old goat but you think it’s good. I wish the old woman has made you sing for revenge & that would really have made everyone cry
Have we had any snow yet! Last night we had a blizzard & in about 8 hours there were drifts several feet thick everywhere And, girlie does the wind howl. When we get a really hard blizzard people have been known to go out of the house to cross over to a neighbour, & they’ve never been seen again.
I’ve got some very interesting photographs which I shall bring home with me. I managed to get a small camera for $1–50 (about 7/–) & it takes quite good little photographs.
I’ve also bought a watch, a fountain pen & a pair of skates.
The skates are pretty good & only cost a dollar. We have a rink on the camp, & I’m getting quite good.
Well I think that’s all the news for now Yvonne, so Cheerioh
[drawing of a fish] [underlined] FISH FARM [/underlined]
[underlined] Love [/underlined]
Terry
P.S. If there is any news in here Mum hasn’t heard would you show it to her sometime
[page break]
Collection
Citation
Terry Ford, “Letter from Terry Ford to his sister,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 23, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/23913.
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